I have a 2 years and nine months old male Jack/Parson Russell cross, called Sidi. He is an active little dog who loves his runs on the beach and gets walked twice a day - around 80/90 minutes each time. Currently he is fed Acana small dog kibble which includes some oats. He weighs approx 10 kilos
This is, at last, a food I can actually get him to eat with just a small amount of “extras” to persuade him to finish the bowl. The amount he has is less than the recommended amount, as, because of some problems we have with him he gets a lot of treats when we are out and about - when he needs them.
So to get to the reason for my post. Sidi has some marks in his eyes which we thought could be cataracts, so we took him to the vets for a check up. We were advised not cataracts and are lipid deposits. Blood tests were carried out because this could be due to various conditions, thyroid, cholesterol, etc.
The initial test results have come back and he has high cholesterol and high triglicerides - no obvious reason, could be idiopathic, further tests are being carried out on his blood for Cushings disease, I think from what I’ve read though he is a bit young for that although he is obviously a small dog.
When I asked the vet for advice he mentioned Hills (either I/d or R/d can’t remember which) or Royal Canin, although he didn’t recommend either. Looking at the results of these foods on here they don’t get a brilliant write up - I am considering therefore Acana Light and Fit and I wondered if anyone had any experience of this food, or would recommend anything else. He seems to prefer foods with an element of grain - have offered non grain foods and he’s refused them. And he does not like wet food nor anything with a lot of fish in it.
Any advice gratefully received and sorry for long post but tried to include as much info as possible.
Hello and welcome to the forum. I am sorry to hear that your Jack Russell is having problems at such a young age. I had a look at Acana light and fit and the fat and carb contents are a little lower than the foods your vet mentioned. It scores highly on the ratings too. I have never used it myself so can’t share personal experience. I do know a couple of people who have used James wellbeloved light for weight control as it is low in fat and have been happy. It does not score as highly as the Acana though.
Hopefully somebody who has fed it or has had experience with some of the issues Sidi has ,will be able to help. I hope you get to the bottom of things soon and Sidi can be helped. Please let us know how he gets on both at the vets and with whatever food you choose for him.
Hello and welcome to AADF forum. I don’t have any experience of Acana Light and Fit although I researched it some time ago as a possibly for two of my dogs. We had a forum member who used it to diet his dog but sadly he did not come back to us so we do not know how he or she got on with it. There are quite a few grain containing foods with low fat - some of them are branded (like Acana) as suitable for weight control.
You really need to use the Dog Food Directory filters on this website to narrow down your search. I see that Acana has a dry weight fat level of 11.1% which is classed as average. It is the dry weight that is important and this is depicted on the dials at the bottom of each product reviewed in the Dog Food Directory. Below average is circa 10%. I think that it is best to have a word with your vet to ask him or her what level of fat you need to be searching for. If you can find that out, we can help you to use the filters to source a suitable product. The problem that I have had in the past when helping someone else to search for products like this is that quite a few of them don’t score very well so it is just a case of getting the best you can find.
You mention cholesterol and triglycerides. I can’t really help you with sourcing a particular food that is lower in these types of fats. I am wondering if it might be worth asking the vet if he knows of any independent nutritionists or vets who specialise in the area. Unfortunately it is not easy to find one, most nutritionists being trained by companies and usually towing the corporate line so to speak.
If you could find out the specifics of the analysis, especially the fat percentage, post back and we will try to help you by using the filters.
I have just done a quick search on the Directory, assuming that you are wanting sub 10% fat (below average). It returned three pages using these parameters:
Type of food - dry
Food properties - natural and clearly labelled
Avoid ingredients - all red, fish and potato
Nutrient levels, fat/oil - 5 to 10%
The Natural Dog Food Company and Wainwright’s Dry Light and Dry Mature seem to score the highest. The latter is easily obtained as it is Pets at Home own product. There are a few from Burns too - best to check it out yourself using those filters. You can tweak them as you wish.
Thanks both for having a look for me. The main reason for looking at the Acana food was because he eats Acana small dog food at the moment. And boy have I had problems getting him to eat anything. Other than, of course what he shouldn’t eat ;D!
I’ll talk to the vet regarding fat percentages when he comes back to me regarding the second set of results.